The need to provide illumination to facilitate performance of ophthalmic surgery in a patient's eye is known. To efficiently and reliably provide such illumination has been difficult, particularly for vitreoretinal surgery. A significant factor in efficient and reliable illumination is coupling of light from a source disposed in a surgical console into a fiber optic of an illumination device. The fiber optic acts as a conduit to deliver the light to a surgical handpiece and into patients' eyes.
In addition to the need of coupling light into the fiber is a need to appropriately dissipate heat generated in the fiber optic when the fiber is exposed to the intense light provided by the source. To date, the problems of coupling light into a fiber and dissipating heat have been addressed by providing a metallic heat sink proximate the end of the fiber and using the heat sink as a connector to the console. In such a configuration, the heat sink is inserted into a port in the console and retained by friction between the heat sink and the console.